EYE ON THE PROFESSION

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE PARK AND RECREATION PROFESSION

It Pays to Pay

A sound philosophy for compensation and benefits will lure good employees

Are you paying enough to attract the best and brightest employees to your agency?

Salaries certainly are an important factor for job seekers, as are benefits and other forms of compensation. For the benefit of professionals in the field, IPRA tracks salaries on an annual basis through the "Employee Compensation Survey of Illinois Park and Recreation Agencies," conducted by IPRA's Administration and Finance Section.

The first survey was completed in 1993, and IPRA continues to use the survey instrument and software developed by William M. Mercer, Inc., a nationally recognized compensation and benefits consulting and research firm. This has enabled us to compute comparisons from six years of salary data and draw some of the following general conclusions.

• Salaries paid by agencies vary with the demographics of the agency. For purposes of comparing salaries of like positions, one must take into consideration the size of the agency's operating budget, its equalized assessed value, the population served, the regional location of the agency, and the overall compensation and benefits philosophy of the board.

• Generally speaking, the larger an agency the higher the salaries.

• The actual salaries of individuals vary based on the responsibilities of the job, performance, years in the job, total experience and education level.

• Other factors to be considered when comparing salaries are benefits that may be offered in lieu of salary such as housing, cars, etcetera.

Completed in October, the 1998 compensation survey drew responses from 122 agencies that reported salary rates for 33 professional and 22 other full- and part-time positions. The data includes a total of 2,418 people whose salaries were reported.

On page 9 you'll see a listing of salaries for select positions in the field. When comparing data from the 1993 survey to the current survey, salary increases vary over the six-year period. On the high end, salaries for recreation center supervisor increased by 36 percent and 32 percent for public information coordinator. On the low end, salaries for personnel/human resources administrators increased by 13 percent while salaries for office manager increased by 16 percent.

The large percentage increase experienced by recreation center supervisors can be attributed to the growth over the past six years of million-dollar park district facilities (e.g., waterparks and fitness clubs) that serve thou- sands of residents. The supervisors of these facilities have more management responsibilities, more experience in the field and are more highly trained now that they were six years ago.

Kay Kastel Forest, CAE IPRA Executive Director

Regarding the similarly large increase in salary for the position of public information coordinator, this reflects a change to "hiring outside." With more emphasis being given to marketing and communications for the agency, many marketing professionals have come from the corporate sector where salaries are traditionally higher than those offered in the park and recreation field. When viewing the data on page 9, keep in mind that the salaries used for comparison were the average for all 122 agencies and did not take into consideration budget size, etcetera. Also, not all of the positions reported in the actual research are reported in this article. There are many variables that must be considered when addressing the issue of salaries and this article can only scratch the surface.

As professionals and boards we must be concerned with attracting the most qualified people to operate our agencies.

In a measure related to IPRA's tracking of professional compensation, IPRA contracted with the Executive Service Corp. of Chicago to conduct an analysis of salaries paid to the association's staff. Although the data used was from the association management field, it indicated that there are common practices that affect all salary

8/ Illinois Parks and Recreation

administration without respect to the particular industry. With this in mind, the report made the following recommendations as an appropriate approach to sound salary administration.

• Salary ranges should be established for all positions. Salaries for new and inexperienced employees should start at the minimum or a point low in the range. Ranges should be adjusted annually based on survey results, cost of living and budget considerations.

• Salaries of employees performing well should reach the midpoint of the range in three to five years, depending on performance. The midpoint of a salary range should be considered an appropriate salary for an employee doing a good, solid job. Salary levels above the midpoint should be the result of exceptional performance, not years of experience.

Bottom line, as professionals and boards we must be concerned with attracting the most qualified people to operate our agencies. Over the past few months I have heard professionals comment that the pool of qualified workers is shrinking. Certain positions are becoming more difficult to fill at the salaries offered, and there are fewer candidates applying for jobs in public parks and recreation.

This is also evident when talking with students about their interests. Many are not entering public parks and recreation, but are opting for other more attractive options in commercial parks, recreation and tourism or in the corporate sector. (See related research by Western Illinois University on page 17.)

As reported recently on CNN, the unemployment rate for college graduates is only 1.3 percent. In an environment of low unemployment, public agencies must be ready to compete like the corporate sector for a quality work force.

Should the profession be concerned? My response is YES.

Is the complete answer salaries? NO, but every agency should make sure that they have a solid philosophy about compensation and benefits that will attract qualified, trained individuals. •

Comparing Salaries in Parks &Recreation

	1993	1998	Percentage Difference
CEO/Director.	$59,000	.......... 71,600	.......... 21%
Park Administrator .....	43,700	.......... 52,400	.......... 20%
Recreation Administrator ......	39,600	.......... 49,200	.......... 24%
Finance Administrator	43,800	.......... 53,300	.......... 22%
Revnue Facilities Administrator	45,900	.......... 54,000	.......... 18%
Asst. Park Administrator ........	34,800	.......... 42,500	.......... 22%
Asst. Recreation Administrator .........	35,200	.......... 42,300	.......... 20%
Human Resources Administrator......	35,500	.......... 40,200	.......... 13%
Public Information Coordinator.......	27,800	.......... 36,800	.......... 32%
Golf Operations Manager......	39,800	.......... 47,000	.......... 18%
Recreation Center Supervisor.........	26,900	.......... 36,700	.......... 36%
Program Supervisor....	25,900	.......... 30,700	.......... 19%
Office Manager	25,300	.......... 29,400	.......... 16%

Note: The salaries reported here are a selection from the entire survey and represent an average of all agencies participating for 1993 and 1998.

Source; "Employee Compensation Survey of Illinois Park and Recreation Agencies," conducted by the IPRA administration and Finance Section and based on a survey instrument developed by William M. Mercer, inc.

January/February 1999 /9